Hearing deficiencies can range from partial to complete hearing loss. Often, an individual's hearing ability varies across the range of audible sound frequencies, and many individuals have hearing impairment with respect to only select acoustic frequencies. For example, an individual's hearing loss may be greater at higher frequencies than at lower frequencies.
Hearing aids have been developed to alleviate the effects of hearing losses in individuals. In instances where the individual's hearing loss varies across frequencies, such hearing aids can be tuned by an audiologist, for example, to compensate for the unique variations of the individual's hearing loss.
Conventionally, hearing aids range from ear pieces configured to amplify sounds to more sophisticated hearing aid devices that are configurable by a hearing specialist. In an example, a hearing health professional takes measurements using calibrated and specialized equipment to assess an individual's hearing capabilities in a variety of sound environments, and then programs the hearing aid profiles based on the calibrated measurements to enhance the performance of the hearing aid in a specific acoustic environment, such as in a crowd, outdoors, or in a quiet room. High-end hearing aids may include between two and six different hearing aid profiles, often including a normal profile and a phone profile as two of the hearing aid profiles. However, even six profiles cannot cover the large range of parameters and response characteristics needed to properly tune a hearing aid to the various acoustic environments to which a user may be exposed, and such high-end hearing aids do not allow the user to adjust the hearing aid profile itself.
In the following description, the use of the same reference numerals in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.